Radioelement distribution in river,beach, and offshore areas and their significance to Chavara placer deposit,Southern Kerala Coast of India

The radioelement and heavy mineral distribution in river, beach and innershelf areas of the southern Kerala coast is related to placer mineral concentration on the beaches at Chavara. Southern Kerala rivers—Neyyar, Karamana and Vamanapuram—transport higher amounts of radioactive elements than the larger Kallada River due to higher radioactive minerals in the hinterland rocks. Coastal configurations and the seasonal longshore current pattern seems to control along-shore distribution of minerals. The proposed model for placer concentration suggests that the energy difference and seasonal current direction along this coast is important.     

Variability of surface roughness and turbulence intensities at a coastal site in India

Surface-layer features with different prevailing wind directions for two distinct seasons (Southwest Monsoon and Northeast Monsoon) on the west coast of India are studied using data obtained from tower-based sensors at a site located about 500 m from the coast. Only daytime runs have been used for the present analysis. The surface boundary-layer fluxes have been estimated using the eddy correlation method. The surface roughnessz ₀ obtained using the stability-corrected wind profiles (Paulson, 1970) has been found to be low for the Southwest monsson season. For the other season,z ₀ is relatively high. The drag coefficientC _D varies with height in the NE monsoon season but not in the season with lowz ₀. This aspect is reflected in the wind profiles for the two seasons and is discussed in detail. The scaling behaviour of friction velocityu _* and the turbulence intensity of longitudinal, lateral and vertical winds _u, _v and _w, respectively) are further examined to study their dependence on fetch. Our study shows that for the non-dimensional case, _u/u_* and _v/u_* do not show any surface roughness dependence in either season. On the other hand, for _w/u_* for the season with lowz ₀, the values are seen to agree well with that of Panofskyet al. (1977) for homogeneous terrain whereas for the other season with highz ₀, the results seem to conform more to the values observed by Smedman and Högström (1983) for coastal terrain. The results are discussed in the light of observations by other investigators.     

Morse pe-curves of AlH

Morse potential energy curves forC ¹⁺ andC ¹⁺ of AlH have been constructed. The energy values have been found to increase from vibrational levels 0 to 6 and decrease from vibrational levels 7 to 50 with the corresponding centre and half-width in the stateC ¹⁺. InC ¹⁺ state the energy values have been found to increase from vibrational levels 0 to 28 and decrease from vibrational levels 29 to 50 with the corresponding centre and half-width.     

Atmospheric Surface-Layer Processes During the Total Solar Eclipse Of 11 August 1999

The central path of the total solar eclipse (TSE) of 11 August 1999 mostly passedthrough a region of active monsoon in India, with the eclipse ending around localsunset. Measurements in the surface layer (SL) were carried out close to the eclipseaxis at Akola (20°42' N, 77°2' E) in central India. The globalradiation flux reaching the surface vanishes around totality at 1803:24 (LT), followedby a small recovery before again dipping to zero at sunset. The temperatures in the SL, and subsoil at 50-mm depth, show a local minimum with a lag of about 10 min after the second contact, whereas the lag appears to vanish when the temperature series is detrended. The SL exhibits near-neutral, though generally stable, conditions from about 1500 hr itself due to heavy cloud cover followed by the eclipse-induced cooling of the surface. The wind component across the eclipse axis vanishes at totality, the wind vector aligning with the azimuth of the traversing moon shadow. The deceleration of the mean flow can be due to the combined effect of the colder surface and downward heat flux, where the locally altered horizontal temperature gradients may cause, as in this instance, the cessation of the cross flow.The oscillations in temperature and wind that show significant peaks, around 90–100 min as well as the semi-period of the eclipse near 60 min, persist for several hours past the eclipse event. A fresh analysis of the published data on the TSE of 7 March 1970 shows spectral peaks in the temperature nearly coincident with those already reported from the surface pressure records. The oscillations in the SL fields during the two TSE events are very similar implying that the source mechanism is also likely to be the same in both the cases.     

Comparative analysis of contributing parameters for rainfall-triggered landslides in the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal

In the Himalaya, people live in widely spread settlements and suffer more from landslides than from any other type of natural disaster. The intense summer monsoons are the main factor in triggering landslides. However, the relations between landslides and slope hydrology have not been a focal topic in Himalayan landslide research. This paper deals with the contributing parameters for the rainfall-triggered landslides which occurred during an extreme monsoon rainfall event on 23 July 2002, in the south-western hills of Kathmandu valley, in the Lesser Himalaya, Nepal. Parameters such as bedrock geology, geomorphology, geotechnical properties of soil, and clay mineralogy are described in this paper. Landslide modeling was performed in SEEP/W and SLOPE/W to understand the relationship of pore water pressure variations in soil layers and to determine the spatial variation of landslide occurrence. Soil characteristics, low angle of internal friction of fines in soil, medium range of soil permeability, presence of clay minerals in soil, bedrock hydrogeology, and human intervention were found to be the main contributing parameters for slope failures in the region.     

Cobalt‐Bearing Grunerite in the Metamorphosed Banded Iron Formation in Orissa,India

Banded iron formation (BIF) comprising high grade iron ore are exposed in Gorumahisani‐Sulaipat‐Badampahar belt in the east of North Orissa Craton, India. The ores are multiply deformed and metamorphosed to amphibolite facies. The mineral assemblage in the BIF comprises grunerite, magnetite/martite/goethite and quartz. Relict carbonate phases are sometimes noticed within thick iron mesobands. Grunerite crystals exhibit needles to fibrous lamellae and platy form or often sheaf‐like aggregates in linear and radial arrangement. Accicular grunerite also occur within intergranular space of magnetite/martite. Grunerite needles/accicules show higher reflectivity in chert mesoband and matching reflectance with that of adjacent magnetite/martite in iron mesoband. Some grunerite lamellae sinter into micron size magnetite platelets. This grunerite has high ferrous oxide and cobalt oxide content but is low in Mg‐ and Mn‐oxide compared to the ones, reported from BIFs, of Western Australia, Nigeria, France, USA and Quebec. The protolith of this BIF is considered to be carbonate containing sediments, with high concentrations of Fe and Si but lower contents of cobalt and chromium ± Mg, Mn and Ni. During submarine weathering quartz, sheet silicate (greenalite) and Fe‐Co‐Cr (Mg‐Mn‐Ni)‐carbonate solid solution were formed. At the outset of the regional metamorphic episode grunerite, euhedral magnetite and recrystalized quartz were developed. Magnetite was grown at the expense of carbonate and later martitized under post‐metamorphic conditions. With the increasing grade of metamorphism greenalite transformed to grunerite.     

Shallow lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath Cambay Rift Zone of India: Inferred presence of carbonated partial melt

A vast area between Phalodi in Jodhpur and Pokaran in Jaisalmer district of western Rajasthan, is occupied distinctly by rocky, shallow gravelly surfaces and occasional hills. These surfaces exhibit quartz and quartzite pebbles, angular, sub-angular and few rounded sandstone gravels, have slightly convex outline and can be best described as desert pavements. Such land features assume significance because of their extent and variability under a dominantly dry aeolian environment. Morphology and distributional pattern of such formations indicate that sediments are either of in situ origin or may have been transported to a short distance. The present study is based on field level assessment of such surfaces in the above two desert districts. Over much of the area, the profile shows a surficial concentration of gravels followed by thick sand and silt mixed with gravels and then the parent material. There are also occasional rock outcrops of very low relief exhibiting vertical, horizontal and conchoidal pattern of fractures over these surfaces near Pokaran and north of Jaisalmer which indicate disintegration of rocks under extreme diurnal fluctuation of temperature. Such manifestations in the morphology indicate impact of both thermal as well as aeolian processes. In the east of Jaisalmer town near Basanpir and Bhojka, the pavement surfaces are found covered with abundant sub-rounded to rounded pebbles and cobbles. This type of condition would indicate a profound action by fluvial activities followed by wind sorting. Our study found significant spatial variability in the distribution of pavement surfaces, which carried imprints of climatic fluctuations and environment of deposition during Holocene.     

Discrimination of explosions and earthquakes: An example based on spectra and source parameters of the 11<Superscript>th</Superscript> May 1998 Pokhran explosion and the 9<Superscript>th</Superscript> April 2009 earthquake

We compare the P-, S- and Lg- spectra of the 11^th May, 1998 Pokhran underground nuclear explosion (NE) with those of an earthquake (EQ) of comparable magnitude that occurred in its vicinity (~100 km west) on 9^th April, 2009, utilizing the waveforms recorded by a Global Seismograph Network station at Nilore (NIL), Pakistan. The contiguous occurrence of these events and the similarity of the travel paths provided a good opportunity to discriminate the nature of the sources. Our results suggest that the Pn/Lg and Pn/Sn amplitude ratios of the explosion and earthquake waveforms exhibit distinct differences in the higher frequency window. Further, since the P-phases have high signal to noise ratio compared to their S counterparts, we utilize their spectra to derive the source parameters of the NE and EQ sources. Our results show that the seismic moment, corner frequency and source dimension of the explosion are ~1.58X10¹⁷ Nm, 1.18 Hz and ~0.793 km respectively. The moment magnitude (M_W) and surface wave magnitude (M_S) for the nuclear explosion are estimated to be ~5.4 and ~3.57 respectively. The values of M_W (5.3) and M_S (4.3) obtained by us for the earthquake are consistent with the estimates in the Harvard catalog and earlier published results. The estimate of M_W for the nuclear explosion was hitherto not available. Lastly, we estimate the yield of the NE to be ~50 kt from the surface wave magnitude and discuss the various limitations related to its estimation.     

A Preliminary Evaluation on the Prospects of Hydrocarbon Potential in the Carbonaceous Shales of Spiti and Chikkim Formations,Tethys Himalaya,India

In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to explore the possibility of hydrocarbon prospects in the carbonaceous shale deposits of Spiti and Chikkim formations exposed in the Spiti valley of the Tethys Himalaya. Twenty samples, collected from successive levels of these litho-units, have been subjected to maceral analysis, Rock-Eval Pyrolysis and six samples to Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses. The study reveals the presence of mainly kerogen-III type of organic matter but some of the shale samples have shown a good amount of total organic carbon (TOC) to the tune of 3.19% which is sufficient to produce hydrocarbon. The results indicate the presence of methane occurring as free and fixed hydrocarbon in the shale samples. Few levels are especially rich in hydrocarbon. They have shown encouraging results with potential for generating liquid as well as lighter hydrocarbon. The data is also supported by the FTIR and NMR studies.